Rock, Paper, Shotgun

The Battlefield series is a bit patchy (HA! DO YOU SEE!) Heroes is a little too “lite” for my tastes, and the rather more realistic-looking 1943 has been delayed into after Christmas. We’re due Bad Company too, but I wonder if the focus on environmental destruction will dilute the multiplayer manshoot. Personally Battlefield 2 was always my favourite, but I must admit I’ve not picked it up in a while. Nevertheless I suppose there must still be some kind of community playing, because DICE have just released a patch for it. A patch first promised in June last year. The words from Battlefield blog:

As part of Update 1.50 we are glad to announce that not only is Highway Tampa now a required install included in the update but Euro Forces (Great Wall, Taraba Quarry and Operation Smoke Screen) and Armored Fury (Midnight Sun, Operation Harvest and Operation Road Rage) is now FREE for all Battlefield 2 players. Including the brand new map, Operation Blue Pearl this brings EIGHT new maps that everyone can play and will be added to ranked Battlefield 2 servers world wide. The Booster Pack content is included in the update and has made the file just over 2Gb in size.

2Gb. Oof. Here’s a list of mirrors.

So many battles, so little time. EA/Dice already seem busy alternately delighting and outraging their fanbase with the much-delayed casual shooter Battlefield Heroes and sorta-remake Battlefield 1943, so dropping an apparent Battlefield 3 into the mix seems like a special kind of madness. Then again, perhaps a full sequel, expanding rather than simplifying or repeating the remit, is the way to win back men’s love. I have precisely zero information beyond EA CEO John Pleasants (he’s not a pheasant plucker, he’s a pheasant plucker’s son) dropping a sly “I’ve had the luxury of looking at Battlefield 3 over at DICE in Sweden and was highly impressed by the way the team is working on that product“, so every word of this post I write is essentially killing time until it looks long enough to publish. Oh, there we go.

BF3 then: whadda we want?

Occasionally we have this quiet tinge of regret about games RPS wasn’t around to comment on as they happened, those occasional moments when much of PCdom focuses joyfully on one incredible thing. Battlefield 2, for example. Vast levels, mega-jets and crazy physics offered a world of possibility for those players prepared to spend hours poking and pulling at every facet of it. F’rinstance:

Yeah, I know there’s a thousand similar videos out there, but this is the one I happened to watch this morning. And it totally gave one me of those goofy-smilin’ “Man! Videogames!” moments.